Halim Rane. Reconstructing Jihad amid Competing International Norms .

New York: Palgrave Macmillan (St. Martins Press), 2009; xii & 239pp.

with Glossary of Arabic terms (pp. 217219), references (pp. 221232), & index.
ISBN- 13: 978-0-230-61483-3. / reviewed by Karim D. Crow

Halim Rane is Deputy Director of the Griffith Islamic Research Unit, and lecturer in
Islamic Studies, at Griffith University in Australia. His work is a unique combination of
perspectives drawn from international relations theory with reference to conflict
resolution, and the methodological approaches of Islamic legal studiesspecifically its
objective-oriented (maqid) dimension applied to re-envisioning jihadwith both
being directed at offering a realistic path toward a just resolution of the Israel-Palestine
conflict. Hardly anything along these multidisciplinary lines has ever been attempted
before, despite the huge number of books written on the situation of Palestinians.
He poses three basic research questions (p. 5):
What is the main obstacle to a just peace in Israel-Palestine? What is
the mechanism through which the Israel-Palestine conflict can be
resolved? What is required of the Palestinians in order to advance
this process? Briefly, a resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict is
obstructed by the direct competition that exists between its two most
central international norms, namely: self-determination, the
fundamental claim of the Palestinians, and self-defense, the
overriding concern of Israelis.
The post9/11 world has elevated the norm of self-defense to a higher priority,
weakening the salience of Palestinian self-determination. It may strike some readers
that by framing the issue in this manner Rane is ignoring the asymmetrical geopolitical
realities of the Middle East, with the unique role Israels patron the United States
continues to play in the region not to mention: What is required of Israelis to achieve
a just peace? Rane is aware of such perceptions, and his well-researched and carefully
argued work dispels the assumption that he is bending over backward to accommodate
Israeli and/or Western requirements. Yet he operates securely within the parameters of
western social sciences (p. 5): A resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict must be
understood in terms of international norms and identity factors.
Rane is quite ambitious when stating his unique objectives in the Preface:
This book makes a significant contribution to the literature on
international norms by exploring the implications for conflict
resolution when two equally legitimate norms compete. With the
norm of self-defense predominant in the peace process, Palestinian

use of violence has become increasingly detrimental to their

struggle for self-determination.
A just resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict requires a
reconstruction of jihad through a process that broadens the concept
to include nonviolent resistance but that retains Islamic legitimacy
and authenticity. This reconstruction, based on context and
objectives, will make a critical contribution to generating the
requisite international support for the norm of self-determination
for the Palestinians, without compromising the norm of self-defense
for the Israelis.
this book offers a complete reformulation of classical approaches
to interpreting Islamic law as it presents a methodology for twentyfirst-century Islam that incorporates the theory and methods of
Western social science into the process of understanding,
interpreting, and applying the Quran and Prophetic Traditions. (pp.
xii & xiii)
Rane is raising the level of expectation very high: the understanding of international
norms will be extended; classical Muslim conceptions of jihad are to be broadened to
embrace active nonviolence; which in turn necessitates a complete methodological
reformulation of Islamic law that also integrates the theory and methods of western
social science. It is as if he wrote three books combined into one all of this in merely
211 pages of text!
The work falls into three parts. Part One: The Israel-Palestine Conflict (pp. 1769),
provides a collapsed overview of the history of the conflict between Palestinians and
Israelis in twenty eight pages. Rane focuses on the peace process, asymmetric power
relations, religious dimensions, and the notion of a just peace. Together these factors
account for the failure of the peace process and its intractability. He concludes that the
historical injustice of Palestinian dispossession or ethnic cleansing still awaits
Israels acceptance of responsibility. Rane next examines the sixty United Nations
Security Council resolutions on this conflict between 19462006 [see www.un.org
section Question of Palestine]. He succeeds in giving a succinct view of major disputed
issues and events. The UNSC has been consistent since Resolution 237 (June 14, 1967)
that Israel is the occupying power over Arab and Palestinian territories captured in
1967, that Israel must abide by the terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and has
consistently insisted on Israels obligation to desist from violations of the Convention.
Basing himself on the contents of these UNSC resolutions Rane distils a normative
framework for a just resolution of the conflict (see pp. 6468). These are obvious to
any impartial observer, but rejected by Israel and marginalized by the U.S. This
normative framework built up over sixty years provides a necessary, but not

sufficient, basis on which the international community and transnational advocacy

networks can pursue a just resolution (p. 67).
The two chapters in Part Two: Theoretical Foundation (pp. 73132) addresses the
potential of transnational networks and governments to enforce international norms.
Chapter 3 on Constructivism reviews this critical theory privileging global norms,
social relations, and identity factors for their significant (yet under-recognized) role in
resolving conflicts. Both state and non-state actors are motivated and constrained by
international norms which have the potential to effect changes in the foreign policy of
nations. Rane provides a very good summary of constructivism based on works by its
major proponents (e.g. Audie Klotz, Norms in International Relations, 1995). He
highlights its role in the Western imposition of sanctions on South Africa and the fall of
apartheid, providing important lessons for the Israel-Palestine conflict (see pp. 8087).
He contends that the constructivist perspective of conflict resolution may help
transform such norms and sentiments into positive action by world leaders and
governments. This approach, independent of strategic or economic considerations,
demonstrates clear advantages over neorealist or neoliberal views of international
relations. In sophisticated manner Rane treats the process by which a new international
norm replaces an existing one; and the impact that norms exercise on a peoples or
nations identity Zionism in particular (pp. 88102).
In chapter 4 The Imperative of a Nonviolent Intifada (pp. 105132) Rane directly
addresses the question of Palestinian violence in the face of Israels occupation and
suppressionwithin the context of the ongoing war on terror and an increasingly
Islamized Palestinian society. He focuses on the counter-productivity of the second
Intifada (from 2000 on) which had the inverse effect of making Israels security
concerns the overriding issue at the expense of international law regarding Israels
illegal occupation, and of worsening the economic and personal security of Palestinians.
Violence failed and became a liability for the Palestinian cause. Rane then reviews the
case for active nonviolence as a superior tactic, by summarizing views of the select
group of authors who advocate nonviolent resistance by Palestinians (J. Galtung, Gene
Sharp, M. Abu-Nimer, A. Rigby; see pp. 114131). He reminds us that the first Intifada
of the 1980s was largely motivated and inspired by alternative civic institutions
notably the Center for the Study of Nonviolence in Jerusalem. Although this first
Intifada did not succeed in remaining completely nonviolent, it is undeniable that
nonviolence formed its primary strategy. (Rane nowhere mentions the founder of this
Center Dr. Mubarak Awad1 who conceived and organized this strategy, and went
1

Mubarak Awad personally intervened with Yasir Arafat in Tunis and persuaded PLO leaders to endorse an
uprising without guns. He later established the international NGO Nonviolence International, which now
has branches in Jerusalem, Bangkok, Banda Aceh, Moscow, Central America, and Washington DC. and

underground hiding in mosques before being apprehended and expelled by the Israeli
authorities.) Rane strongly suggests that there exists a viable alternative to violence for
Palestinians, while recognizing the obstacles impeding this path: The Center for the
Study of Nonviolence in Palestine concluded that the perception among
Palestinians of nonviolence as strange to Islam is widespread and difficult to
combat. armed resistance is a right of the Palestinian people (p. 131).
This brings Rane to re-thinking Jihad in the final part of his book. He seeks to
incorporate the constructivist perspective of international relations into a
reformulation of jihad based on the contextualist and maqasid-oriented approaches of
Islamic studies (p. 10). He stresses that the militant understanding, interpretation, and
application of jihad have endured as the predominant norm among Muslims; whereas
nonviolent resistance is yet to be recognized in the Islamic tradition as a legitimate and
normative form of jihad.2 Applying these observations to the contemporary realities of
the Israel-Palestine conflict, he asserts these not only render the use of violence
detrimental to the Palestinian cause of self-determination and further entrench the
occupation and repression endured by the Palestinian people, but are contrary to the
higher objectives of jihad as enshrined in the Quran itself (pp. 78). This conviction
leads him to offer persuasive reasons why shifting from violent to nonviolent resistance
by Palestinians would not merely promote the acceptance of the predominant
international norm of self-determination in their favor, but would be a preferable option
in terms of the higher objectives of jihad enshrined in the Quran. The main challenge in
making this shift to active nonviolence is convincing the Islamically oriented.
Part Three of his book in two chapters (Reformulation pp. 135201) is devoted to
persuading Muslim legal minds and community leaders to make this shift in mindset.
Chapter 5 The Islamic Doctrines of War and Peace presents a brief sketch of the
classical Muslim juridical doctrine on jihad as expounded in the Siyar writings. Here,
Rane relies on scholarly works in English or translated into English (Ghunaimi,
Khadduri, Peters, AbuSulayman, Hamidullah, al-Buti, Kamali) to assemble his
snapshot of legal jihad. He treats the juristic problem of abrogation (naskh) of the
earlier Quranic verses teaching tolerance, long-suffering or peacable persuasion, by the
later Madinan sword verses (Q 9:5 & 9:29), citing evidence that this juridical dogma
was projected back onto the Quran for political and social reasons. Rane reviews
contemporary Muslim discourses on jihad relating to Palestine, as well as its
appropriation by Jihadists as legitimate warfare, and the centrality of understanding

supports nonviolent efforts in a variety of societies. Born in Jerusalem into an Antiochian Orthodox family,
Awad advocates active nonviolence (abr) as authentic Christian and Islamic practice.
Rane has overlooked many significant precedents by Muslim thinkers and activists who might have been
invoked to support his contention that nonviolence is an authentic application of jihad (e.g. Abdul Ghaffar
Khan, Nursi Said & jihad manavi, or Ustaz Jawdat Said).

jihad in terms of armed struggle. The contemporary Islamic outlook, complains

Rane, has not given due consideration to the role of norms and identity factors in
international relations, and thus nonviolent jihad has not been conceptualized in
terms of conflict resolution (p. 158). In his final chapter Putting Jihad into Context
Rane boldly proposes to reconstruct jihad by conducting a comprehensive analysis of
all Quranic verses pertaining to war and peace. Yet this attempt is overly concise.
His last Chapter (pp. 159201) is the most intriguing, and also the most frustrating part
of his book. Rane takes his cue from the doyen of imaginative reconstruction and
creative ijtihad Professor M. Hashim Kamali who advocates the objective-oriented
transformation of the legal tradition. Rane combines this conceptual framework with the
contextualized and historic-political sensitivity towards Quranic revelation exemplified
by thinkers of the stature of F. Rahman, A.H. AbuSulayman, or Abdullah Saeed. By
infusing Islamic legal methodology with the creative conceptualizing method of the
maqasid (ultimate intents) of the Law, and transforming the legalistliteralist reading of
revelation, it is possible to arrive at a more adequate and beneficial understanding of
jihadas nonviolent striving for justice and upright social order. Especially in his
analysis of the Quranic verses with their major themes (pp. 177194) Rane attempts to
demonstrate the feasibility of such a project.
Rane has established that a nonviolent intifada is more conducive to the Palestinian
pursuit of self-determination from a constructivist perspective. Almost all wellinformed observers of the Middle East would consent to this view, and many
Palestinians are now coming to accept it as pragmatic policy. Yet Ranes contention
that active nonviolence is in actuality an authentic form of jihad, and must be seen to be
as Islamically legitimate as the classical juridical conception of militant expansion
through warfare, is more controversial and would certainly arouse strong disagreement
by many Muslims. One is also obliged to ask: are classical juristic conceptions most
determinative for motivating and persuading Muslim activists today?
However, it takes more than 211 pages to do so persuasively, and one also hopes that
the original Islamic texts and authors would be allowed a greater say in the process. For
the purposes of educated exchange and public debate this detailed, careful and
thoughtful work deserves wide readership and considered attention. Since April 2011
the massive peoples uprisings across the Arab World have re-focused our attention on
the utility and pragmatic benefit of direct non-violent action, and there are today vital
stirrings among the Palestinian people themselves to employ this proven tactic in
resisting Israeli occupation and aggression. Dr. Ranes careful theoretical consideration
of the pragmatic utility of non-violent resistance should receive more attention from
both Palestinian activists and officials, as well as from policy and government thinkers
who craft the foreign policy of states.